A New Friend, An Old Secret
by johnegdorkable
Summary: Dave is a new student at John's school and John may have developed a crush on him. The only thing is, he can't let Dave know about his scars. Warning: Self harm. JohnxDave
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Obviously, I don't own Homestuck. I'm new to this, so I'm sorry if I mess up anywhere. At least I tried! :)**

"John Egbert?"

You are now John Egbert, a sixteen year old boy, daydreaming and playing with your sleeves.

You tear away from your daydream. "Oh, um, here!", you answer to your first period teacher taking attendance. Absentmindedly, you begin tapping your pencil against your paper while the teacher finishes going through her list of students. This teacher, in your opinion, is boring. Well, yes, you like school and you're really good at it, but seriously? This teacher always does the same thing. Takes attendance, gives some new quote that's supposed to be inspirational, starts teaching for twenty minutes, hands out a work sheet and that's it. It does get boring, she never really breaks protocol.

See, shes going to give her quote.

"Today, we have something new. Not a new, quote of the day, I sadly don't have time for one today, sorry. Instead, we have a new student."

What? Of course that happens today. You jinxed it, you said she never breaks protocol. Anyways, you snap your head up to see this new student. And you're glad you did.

Leaning against the doorway is a tall, boy with blonde hair that's catching light in a perfect way. He's wearing some old, worn out red converse, black jeans with some silver chains hanging from them and a white shirt with a broken record on it. But you don't really notice any of that. All you notice is the fact that hes wearing glasses. No, not glasses, shades. A pair of black shades, aviators you think. They shield his eyes from showing any emotion, but the rest of his facial expressions show hes slightly bored. All together, he looks cool, but cute. You'd never say that though.

"His name is Dave Strider. Dave, could you please find an empty seat? Once you do, we can begin."

The boy, Dave, walks towards you. Of course he does, you sit next to the wall in the back and the seat beside you is the only open seat. It's always unoccupied, no one ever sits with you. Why would they? You're you, and for a long time you've known, you really shouldn't be you. Being you used to work but then, back in fourth grade- what?

Someones tapping your shoulder.

You turn and look to see whose trying to grab your attention. Dave. Its him who was trying to get your attention. Why is he talking to you? He's cool. Why doesn't talk to the person on his other side? You get torn out of these thoughts though, when Dave begins to speak.

"Hey man, sup? What class is this again?"

Oh god. He has an accent. A heavy texan accent. God, that accent is amazing. You could listen to him talk all day.

"Oh, um its English."

"Sweet. I'm Dave, whats your name?" He doesn't know you. Maybe you could be friends?

"I'm John. Um, you have an accent. Were you from Texas or something?"

"Dude, in my mind, you all have accents. I'm the normal one. Yea, my bro and I moved from there like, last week. Man, its cold here."

"Hehe, yea. I guess that would be a huge climate change for you-" You were about to continue, but got cut off by the teacher.

"John! Dave! No talking while I'm teaching!"

You look down and your desk again and smile slightly. You think today is going to be a good day.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Chapter two! Yay! I wasn't really sure how to go with this... sorry!**

"Class, due to us having a new student, we will need to stop a few minutes early so we can assign Dave a person to help him out and show him around the school. Dave, would you like to choose someone or would you like me to pick for you?"

You watch as Dave looks up from his desk to the teacher and listen to his alluring accent. "I think I can pick for myself, I'm a big boy now." Your pretty sure that if he wasn't wearing his shades, you could probably see him rolling his eyes.

"Dave, please come stand at the front to choose someone to help." Is she trying to embarrass him or bored him to tears? You really don't know. Probably both. Dave doesn't seem to care really though, because he just walks up to the front and looks around the room. You try and extinguish any hope he'll pick you, but your curiosity gets the better of you and you wonder who he's going to pick. Probably one of the girls, there's some cute girls in this class, well cute in others opinion, you don't notice. Maybe he'll choose some cool guy. He-

"John. Like, the kid who I was sitting beside."

Did he just pick you? What? This isn't right. He's cool! He's supposed to ignore you! You start to think he might want to be friends with you. No one will notice, right? You hope not. You'd like having Dave as a friend.

"John, would you be okay with showing Dave around and helping him out?" asks the teacher.

"Oh, yea, um, of course!" Wow, you needed to say two words and you said five. Good job Egbert.

Before you can do anything about that, the bell rings. You jump out of your seat and practically run to the door. Practically? Okay, you ran to the door. You're about to run through the hall when someone tugs on your shirt, causing you to flinch and slowly turn around.

"Woah dude, hold up. You're supposed to show me around. Did you forget in a few seconds?" says an amused Dave.

"Oh, sorry, I did...Just used to leaving straight away. Here, what classes do you have?" How could you forget already? You're such an idiot sometimes. Dave hands you a list of his classes. "Hey! We have some same classes together and lunch. We've got period one, two, lunch, fifth and seventh together." Well, that's nice and it'll help if you two become friends!

"Seriously dude, that's rad. It'll help having someone I know in most of my classes."

"Hehe, yeah it'll be awesome! Oh, we have to get to class!" You grab his wrist and run down the hall as fast as you can. Good thing your second period class isn't that far away. One period down, six to go.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Ok, sorry, for a sorta late update. The first two were consecutive, but I wasn't really feeling all that well...Anyways, I'd like to warn you guys, there's self harm in this chapter. Sorry if I did any spelling mistakes! :3**

Math class. Perhaps your best class after P.E. You're good at math and you like it, so it's a safe haven.

And you arrived with Dave just in time for it. Good thing you're a fast runner, you would hate to get in trouble for being late and making Dave late as well. Oh god, how could you do that? What if that had happened? He'd probably think of you as a bad friend and get mad at you-

"Mr. Egbert, please take your seat."

"Oh! Hehe, sorry!" That's the, what, third time this has happened TODAY?! Egbert, pay attention! Could you be any more stupid? You just end up walking to your seat, embarrassed. Wait a minute. Someone's in the seat beside yours. This never happens. Is that person sick or crazy? No..it's Dave. You smile on the inside. You think..maybe he wants to actually be friends with you as well? You decide to wait until the teacher hands out a worksheet and then start talking to Dave.

"Hey, Dave, do you need any help? We're working on quadratic equations."

"Hell yes I do. I don't know what the hell this shit is."

This is good. You can help him. You're smart. Just don't mess this up. You start helping him out until he has a pretty good sense of what to do. Since this class forever and goes on for who knows how long, you decide to pass the time by asking him questions.

"So, Dave, why did you leave Texas?"

"Because it's hot as fucking hell there and my bro found a job here. Although, it's fucking Antarctica here. How the fuck do you guys stand this cold?"

"Hehe, it's not that cold here,.you know. It's only autumn...good luck in winter!"

"Are you saying it gets fucking colder?"

"Well, yes. Hey, by the way, what's with your glasses? You do realize we're inside, right?"

Oh god, as soon as he said that, he looked kinda defensive for a minute...

"Woah dude. Don't dis the shades. They're rad, ok? Anyways, I do realize we're inside, but my eyes are just like, sensitive to light and shit like that, ok?" Hes talking really fast...great job. He probably thinks you were trying to make fun of him!

"Oh, sorry..."

"Look man, it's ok. Why don't we just change this subject? Have you always lived here, or did you move here?"

"I've lived here my whole life! I actually have never even left this place before..." God you wish you could leave this place. You start scratching your wrists and tugging on your sleeves. You do that a lot when you're nervous or upset..

"Aw, bro, you gotta get out of here one day! I mean, don't go to Texas unless you want to try hell's heat on it's 10th level, but at least go to a neighbouring state!"

"Yea, I'm dying to get out of this place..." You glanceat the clock. 15 minutes till your next class. "Hey Dave, your next class is Chemistry and mine's P.E., so I'll just show you where Chem. Is right now, ok?"

"Sure, whatever works."

You go up to the teacher and explain that Dave is new and you're showing him each of his classes. Somehow, the teacher allows this and gives you two hall passes. You hand one to Dave and tell him to follow you as you walk down some empty halls and made a couple of turns. You stop at the chem lab door.

"Um, here it is! Your third period class!" As if he didn't know which period class. That was stupid.

"Oh thanks. Thought it was my last period class." He smirks at you. God, you're an idiot.

"Hehe, that was sorta stupid of me. Um, well, I have to go to P.E., so, see you after this class!" You say that and run down the hall. You don't even know why you ran.

You just started feeling anxious. God, you hate that word. Anxious, anxiety. It pretty much means that you're always nervous or afraid for something. You run to the closest bathroom and hide in a stall. For a minute, you stop to think about what you're about the do, but you quickly push the thought away.

Instead, you fumble around in your pockets, searching. Finally, you find it. A simple house key of yours, but you had sharpened the edge of it long ago. I's sorta a last resort, when you don't have any razors blades. You slowly pull the sleeve of your left arm up and bring the key close to your wrist. Your forearm is filled with cuts, from the elbow down. Most are old, but a couple are fresh. You bring the key up to your wrist and press down on the skin, lightly at first. Then, you apply pressure as you drag the key about an inch, a trail of red following it. For a moment, you relish in the feel, but its short lived, you have to be at your next class soon. To stop the bleeding, you mop it up off your wrist with some toilet paper and grab a bandaid out of your pocket. You quickly apply it to the cut, roll your sleeve down and step out of the stall, throwing out the bloodied toilet paper as you leave.

Lately, you have been bringing bandaids to school, in case you get anxious. A few years back, you learned cutting was a quick way to relieve all your anxiety, but you've been secretive about it. Obviously. No one knows, and you want to keep it that way. Since it's getting colder out, you can start cutting more, P.E. Its really the only thing that stops you. Usually, you have to wear short sleeves for it, but since most of your classes are outside and its freezing out there, you wear long sleeves.

Speaking of P.E., you better start running or you're going to be late. Two periods down, five to go.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry, it's been, like, nine days since my last update? I haven't been feeling my best. Anyways, I decided to add in Karkat, Jade and Rose in this chapter and also switched the point of view for a bit! **

By running all the way to gym, you somehow made it there on time. You like gym, it's a nice class. Curious to what is going to happen for today's class, you walk up to the teacher and idly make chat with them until you learn that you're practicing relays. This is going to be awesome.

Everyone sets up their positions. You're the anchor for your team. Oh my god, you're going to burst with excitement. You _love_ running. Looking back, you see that the second group off runners in just on their way. You continue watching for another 15 seconds, until the second group is close to the third group. Now, you turn around and smile. This is going to be fun. Once again, in position, you wait.

Finally, a mere 30 some-odd seconds, you hear the runners extremely close. Then, you feel the cold metal of the baton against your palm, which you grip tightly. And you run. You run as fast as you can. You feel the wind rushing by. You feel your heart pounding with excitement. And you barely realize you crossed the finish line. First place. A whole 10 seconds before the other racers. You smile.

"Let's do some more races." your teacher says. You can't wait.

Woah, what's going on? You are no longer the kid who loves running. Well, you don't _love_ running, but you don't hate it either. No, now you're a much cooler kid. You are Dave Strider

You moved to this frozen hell a few days ago from Texas, with your bro. You've moved around before, but you always stayed in Texas until know. And hell, you didn't know it could get this fucking cold. But, even when freezing to death, you still look cool. You _are_ a Strider.

Third period sucks. You don't even know what the hell is going on. Glancing at the clock, you see you only have a few more minutes left of this boring class.

"This shit is hella fucking boring." you think.

At least when it's over, you get to see that John kid again. Inwardly, you smile at the thought of him. He's dorky, but in a cute way. Wait, did you just say cute? Shit. No. John's probably as straight as an arrow. You're more of a broken arrow straight. Ok, so you aren't straight, but John is. What's John's last name? You were going to ask him when he showed you where this class was, but then he left. He didn't just leave though, he bolted. Did you scare him? Well, you are taller then him, maybe that freaked him out. Or it could be your shades. Shit, when he brought up the shades, you couldn't have changed the topic faster. At least he didn't bring them up again. Anyw-

"Ok, periods over class, clean up your desk and head to your next period."

Hell yes. It's over. Now you get to go to lunch...where the fuck is the cafeteria? Where's John? Shit. He didn't forget about showing you around, did he? You decide to walk out of the room and look for him in the hall. A quick look in all directions confirms the fact that John forgot. Fuck, this means that you'll probably have to ask someone where the cafeteria is. You look around to find someone to ask and you decide on a pale boy with brown eyes and black hair, whose just a little shorter than you. Fuck, you're tall. Anyways, he seems ok. You walk up to him.

"Hey man, I'm new here, can you tell me where the cafeteria is?"

"Holy fuck. Look at stretch right here? Hell, can't you just see the cafeteria, you tower over all this shit already. I guess you can't through those dumbass shades. Fine, whatever. I'll show you the caf. Follow me, asslamp."

What the hell? That made no sense, but you follow him anyways. After a couple of minutes of peaceful silence, he talks to you again.

"So, are you just going to silently follow me like a mute puppy or some shit like that or actually talk to me?"

Why did you think this kid was ok? "Dude, not a mute puppy, more like lost dog. Anyways, my names Dave."

"Lost dog, no shit. I'm Karkat."

"What the hell kind of name is that?"

"What the hell is with the shades, we're inside. Asshole. Anyways, here it is. I have to go, see you later, douche."

Karkat left you at the doors of a fairly sized, ordinary, white bricked cafeteria. You look around it until you spot John at a table with a couple of girls. He _did_ forget you. You decide to get payback for this by sneaking up on him and scaring him.

Using your awesome, ninjalike abilities, you quickly and quietly stride up to his table, having the three occupants of it facing away from you. You then place your hand on John's shoulder while you say, "Boo."

The kid practically jumps out of his fucking skin. You laugh your ass off and the two girls just look at you, confused.

"Dave! What the hell!"

"Sorry dude, couldn't resist." You smirk at him.

He looks at you, and boy, does he look annoyed. Why is he annoyed? You're the one who was forgotten here!

"John, you forgot to go to my class at the end of last period. I had to get some swearing idiot to show me where this place was."

He gives you an apologetic smile as you take a seat beside him. "Sorry Dave! I can't believe I forgot!"

"It's ok, can I have a cookie?" You say as you steal one from his lunch.

"A little late to ask, but yes." he grins at you.

You eat the cookie as one of the girls speaks up, bringing your attention to the two. The one speaking has short blonde hair, a pink headband, black lipstick, a black shirt and pink eyes. The other has bright green eyes, large round glasses, slight buckteeth like John and long black hair.

"John, do you wish to introduce us to your new friend?" Asks the blonde.

John smiles and says to all of you, "Oh, yeah! Jade, Rose, this is Dave! He's new and moved here from Texas! Dave, this is Jade and Rose, my best friends!"

Sweet, looks like you might have just make some friends on your first day.


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N: Hi! So I am so sorry for almost a months delay in updating, this chapter was really hard to write and I am incredibly sorry if it didn't seem to be done well.)**

**(John's point of view again)**

Lunch was nice, Dave seemed to make friends with Rose and Jade fairly quickly and it was fun. As long as he doesn't date one of them. Wait, what? Where did that come from? You push that thought away as you walk to History with Dave.

"Hey John, I forgot to ask you at lunch, what's your last name?"

"Oh, it's Egbert! John Egbert." You say, turning your head to look and him and you smile .

"Egbert? Dude, I could call you either John, Egbert or Egdork!" He looks at you and smirks.

"Egdork, seriously?"

"Well, I could do something better like...Egderp!" You roll your eyes at him.

"Whatever Dave, this is our class here." you reply, entering the class.

Like in the other classes you had together, Dave sits beside you. It's new, but it's nice. Rose and Jade don't have any classes with you, so you usually sit alone. Usually? Ok, you always sit alone.

History drags along as you and Dave talk a bit more. Towards the end of the period, you have learned that Dave loves to play his turntables more than you love to play the piano, he hates smuppets, whatever those are? and he has a crazy obsession with applejuice. He lives with his Bro and always has, his Bro is a DJ and got a sweet job here, hence them moving.

Before you know it, the period ends and you have to take Dave to his music class. You both have music at the same time, but they're different classes. His is for upbeat, DJ like music while yours is more for classical. The only nice thing is that they're right beside eachother, so the two of you walk there together.

"Hey Dave, I said my last name, but what's yours?" You ask.

"Oh, man it's the best last name. It's Strider. Dave Strider." He replies.

Damnit, there is no way to make Strider sound stupid, unlike how Egbert can be translated into tons of stupid nicknames.

You tug on Dave's arm as you point to his class. Then, you walk about six steps to your class. This is another class you like.

The teacher smiles at you as you enter and you return the smile as you walk up to the piano you always play. A few other students gather in the room and take out their instruments as you decide to just play some random keys that sound beautiful together. No one really minds, it's what everyone does with their instruments since the teacher doesn't usually make you do much work.

You play on as you think about things. You think about Jade. You think about Rose. You think about Dave. You think about him for a long time until the number 4 crosses your mind, changing your thoughts to fourth grade.

Back then, everything had been nice. You had some friends, good grades and a happy life. Then, a new student showed up. Her name was Vriska. She instantly took a liking to you. And by a liking, you mean, she was head over heels for you. And she didn't try to hide it. Constantly, she followed you around, spoke to you, hung out with you. It wasn't that bad having her as a friend, but you didn't know how to break it to her that you didn't _like girls_. Until one day at school.

**(Flash Back)**

"John! Jooohn!" You turn around only to come face to face with a girl who has long black hair, blue makeup and round glasses calling your name.

"Oh, uh, hi Vriska!" You reply. Vriska's fun and all, but she really _likes_ you...and you really don't _like_ girls.

"John, let's go hang outside! It's recess! Let's go run around or sit and talk or something!" She asks as she looks up at you with pleading eyes.

Letting out a heavy sigh, you agree to go with her. Not even a second after agreeing, she takes your hand and races out the door, dragging you along.

"V-Vriska!" You shout as she continues to drag you to a semi secluded part of the schoolyard. She stops at an area shaded by a nearby tree and as you look around, some of her friends are not far off, looking at you two while smiling, giggling and chatting. What's going on here?

You bring your attention back to Vriska and see that she was watching you? You're probably wrong on that, she probably just looked at you. Anyways, is she blushing? Her cheeks are kinda going red. You think that's a blush. Right? Have you ever even _seen_ a girl blush? Maybe. Who knows. In a Nick Cage movie most likely. All the girls fall for him! Oh gosh, Vriska is now staring at you and she looks confused. Way to get lost in your thoughts Egbert.

"Oh Johnnyboy, did you get lost in my eyes _again?_" She says as she smiles. Again? You never have. Maybe don't say that. It might hurt her feelings.

"Oh, uh, no, just got lost in thoughts! So, uh, what do you want to do?" You ask, trying to get away from that subject.

"Well," she says, stretching out the l as if there were 8 instead of 2, " We could play a game! You have to find something I will like around here and I will find something that you like! Neither can know what the other is going to get though, so you can't watch me, ok?"

She's looking at you with big eyes. Maybe you should just play and get it over with?

"Okay. I'll play." You agree with a feigned smile. You are promptly turned around by Vriska and told to start finding something for her.

Looking around the schoolyard, you spot some blue flowers. Flowers are things girls like, right? She'll like them. You hope. At least they're blue. You walk over to the patch of flowers and try to figure out how many to pick. You grab one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight-

"Oh Joooooooohny! Times up!" Vriska shouts. Times up? There was a time limit? You shrug your shoulders and bring the eight blue flowers over to the tree that Vriska is under.

"John, you're new to this, so you can go first! I close my eyes, and you give me the present!" She

instructs as she closes her eyes.

"Uh, okay? Hold out your hand," She does as you ask, "Here." You say as you place the flowers on her opened palm.

Her eyes shoot open and a grin spreads across her face. "Blue flowers?! I love the colour blue! And there are eight of them! Eight is my favourite number! Oh thank you!" She smiles as she throws her arms around you. "My turn now! Close your eyes!"

You close your eyes and wait for whatever she's going to give you.

And suddenly there's a pair of lips on your cheek. What?! You open your eyes and stare shocked at the person, Vriska. You step back, breaking her kiss on your cheek. She looks a little confused.

"I, uh, I don't, um, like you that way," You say, fumbling for words. You could have and should have stopped there, but you didn't. "I don't like _girls._"

**(Back To Present Day)**

A piercing shrill snaps you to reality, the bell. You grimace thinking of what happened on your way home after that day. Vriska had stopped you on the playground and two boys along with another girl were with her. They all seemed familiar, one boy seemed sorta nervous and unsure, another looked incredibly strong and the girl hand bright red glasses. They were all students in your grade. And they were all the ones that had watched as Vriska and the stronger boy beat you.

You were forced to walk home scandalously late, beaten and bruised. You had scrapes, bruises, cuts and they had broken your glasses. Your father was away on business. He never knew you came home late. Instead, you were forced to tell your father that you had fallen off the jungle gym and this had happened.

That was the day it started, the anxiety, the bullying and the cutting. That was the year you were bullied by Vriska and her gang, until she moved away the next year. And Vriska and her friends only reason had been that you were gay.


End file.
